At a certain point, the Brand story will run its natural course here in Los Angeles. I hope that time is soon. But it's probably worth noting Jonathan Abrams' piece in this morning's New York Times on Brand:

[Brand] was on the verge [of re-signing with the Clippers], focusing on the fine print with Clippers Coach Mike Dunleavy, who also had the role of general manager, a title recently made official by the team’s parting with its longtime vice president for basketball operations, Elgin Baylor.

Dunleavy negotiated directly with Brand. They agreed on money and years, but became stuck at a point for an early termination option, a clause that would allow him to become a free agent earlier.

“My last correspondence with him was July 1 at 7:57 p.m.,” Dunleavy recently said in a telephone interview. “He texted, ‘Hey Coach, I have some problem with some language and the E.T.O.’

“By the next morning, I texted him back and said I got it taken care of and to call me. I haven’t heard from him since.”

Brand cut off communication with everybody from the Clippers. Falk took charge of Brand’s negotiations and, after entertaining an offer from the Warriors, Brand signed a five-year, $82 million deal with the 76ers.

The signing ignited a war of words between Dunleavy and Falk, through radio waves and newspapers. It put a mark on Brand’s good-guy reputation in the N.B.A.

“It wasn’t an issue of him leaving,” Dunleavy said. “It was an issue how Elton left. To me, it was that he didn’t even call or explain it after the time we had together. I basically did all I could for the guy. He could have called me up and said this is better for my family and I would have said O.K. What could I do with that?

“After being with somebody for five years and being as close as I thought I was with someone and a guy gives his word, that’s all it would have taken as far as I’m concerned. It’s just one of those types of things.”

Brand acknowledged that he had not spoken with Dunleavy since.

“After that, it was kind of he-said, she-said; I didn’t know what was true,” Brand said. “But Coach Dunleavy was the best pro coach I played for. I got the furthest in my career and I was an All-Star under him. I hope it’s water under the bridge because I think he’s a good coach and a good person.”

Most fans might be inclined to blame Falk. But agents are intrinsically amoral, and Falk's actions don't fall outside the boundaries of what's typical in pro sports -- though this was clearly an atypical situation. I suspect that Elton's recollection of Falk's imperative to cut off all contact with the Clippers is probably accurate. Whether that absolves Elton of doing the right thing by Dunleavy, the Clippers organization, people who like the Clippers, Baron Davis, etc, depends on how much self-management and loyalty you demand from the pro athletes you support. Likewise, whether you blame the Clippers' organization depends on how much competence you demand from your team to close deals, irrespective of whether agents act like agents and players act like players -- and whether you consider these factors to be beyond the organization's control.

Posted Wednesday, October 29 at 3:20PM

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It makes Brand look just as bad as we all thought he did at the time. And he's completely compliant for his actions. To Dunleavy, Baron Davis, Kaman, his other teammates and, most importantly, the fans.

"The Clippers are hoping their revamped frontcourt and the addition of Baron Davis at the point can add up to a playoff berth, but that seems unlikely unless they're unusually healthy and youngsters like Thornton and Gordon contribute more than expected.

Health could be the major bugaboo. I projected the Clips with Camby averaging 30 minutes a game and Baron Davis and Kaman 33, including time out for injuries; if two of those three can get into the high 30s the outlook improves significantly, but given their histories that doesn't seem like the smart way to bet.

And while L.A. has some useful bench players in the sense that they can handle a 10- to 15-minute role, as far as star power goes this is basically a three-man team. Thornton is the best hope of expanding the list to four; but at the same time several Clippers have downside risk based on their age and recent declines in production, Camby among them.

Should L.A. falter, one other thing to keep an eye on is its cap situation. Camby, Mobley and Thomas all have deals that expire in 2010, which could potentially get the Clips way under the salary cap and make them players in the LeBron James-Dwyane Wade-Chris Bosh sweepstakes. Alternatively, they could trade those players to a contender for somebody with a large expiring contract and get into the market in 2009.

Either way, their future cap position looks a lot more promising than their present outlook. But isn't that always the case with the Clippers?

Prediction: 30-52, 4th in Pacific Division, 12th in Western Conference"

Blaming Brand in this instance is ludicrous. As most players get to know the Clippers way of doing business, excepting max offer deals by DTS, they head for the hills. I'll be surprised if the Dunleavy-Baron Davis fares any different after Baron gets to know the Dunce. I hope for the best however.

2) Elton Brand is a pathetic coward. Even if follow your agent's orders and let him negotiate everything - wouldn't you ask him a couple days later, "hey, David, are you talking to the Clippers? Remember Dunleavy texted me and said the ETO was not a problem and that was the only hangup in the deal." Brand is as complicit as Falk because he could've insisted on wanting to stay. Falk is working for Brand - not the other way around! Brand either is a spineless girl and Falk turned him against his old team in less than 24 hours, or Brand is a spineless girl who wanted Falk to take the fall for his bitch move, about which he wasn't man enough to be honest with us.

3)Brand being a backstabber has already turned out to be a huge blessing in disguise. We have never had a better, deeper team. We don't need Brand. Period.

something tells me if Elgin was point man on the negotiations Brand would still be in LA.

It absolutely is the organizations fault for dropping the ball on negotiations.

Why we scapegoat the agents or the players in the PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL LEAGUE is beyond me. If the organization cant pony up to keep talent, they dont deserve it.

My opinion is that the organization bears the majority of the blame in this fiasco and rewarding Dunleavy was the final kiss of death to any of the progress made over the last 7 years.

Until Dunleavy is removed and the entire organization goes through a major face lift and DTS finally finds that Jesus in the NBA means putting a real product on the floor in one of the largest markets in the world, we wont see any success even close to the Elton years.

We let a future hall of famer walk away over a simple sticking point on a contract because the "GM" Dunleavy couldnt close a deal with one of the longest tenured players in franchise history.

"Until Dunleavy is removed and the entire organization goes through a major face lift and DTS finally finds that Jesus in the NBA means putting a real product on the floor in one of the largest markets in the world, we wont see any success even close to the Elton years."

WHAT SUCCESS? One postseason run--coached by none other than Mike Dunleavy. Go root for the Bobcats.

ACD, you're right in that I giggled...giggled because it's so true. To follow up on FD.com, if the Dunce hadn't put Daniel Ewing on Raja Bell, we might have a Championship banner hanging in the rafters.

It is clear that Elton has no spine. And that breaks our hearts. Why? Because we watched him play for all those years, keeping our team afloat, working hard and keeping his head down - a real, old school type of player - the kind everyone wants to have on their team. The problem is, WE ASSUMED HE HAD A HEART AND SOME INTEGRITY TO GO WITH THAT WORK ETHIC. That's an easy assumption to make. And he fooled us for a long time. All of us. But now we know his true colors. In the end, he is just like all the rest. We thought we struck gold, but it was fool's gold.

I'm so excited that we're still yarning about Brand, Elgin, Cassell, The team three seasons ago, the team last season, Maggette, Dunleavey, and Falk.
It's really where the focus needs to be right now. These are the topics that are going to determine the success of this years team...

If there's one thing I've learned about being a Clippers fan, its look forward not backwards. Elton Brand is a philly cheesesteak covered afterthough and nothing more.

Call me a dreamer, but I believe this team has some serious potential in the seasons to come. And I just wanted to make light of that.

This is pretty easy to figure out... Dunleavy didn't want to negotiate with Brand's agent, so he made an end run around him and negotiated directly with Brand, cutting his agent out of the loop. He almost got away with getting Brand for considerably less than the going rate. He gambled and got caught.

There is a reason players sign with agents. Because they are better at protecting their interests than the players are themselves. They have more experience with the numbers and aren't bothered by loyalty and are immune to that "we're all on the same team" pressure that players who negotiate for themselves fall prey to.

By negotiating directly with Brand, Dunleavy tried to lock up their star for a good price. It's a dangerous business practice that can backfire, as it did, but it's logical enough. Falk did the right thing by his client and shut it down and got him a better deal elsewhere. Brand did the right thing by listening to the agent he hired.

Dunleavy was a bit of a shark and deserves some blame and Brand was a bit naive and never should have been negotiating in the first place. Falk was the blameless one in all of this. He was just doing his job.

"Falk did the right thing by his client and shut it down and got him a better deal elsewhere"? You cant say it was a better deal when he could have been teamed up with Baron, Thornton, and Kaman (possibly even maggette as clipper president roeser even admitted afterwards that they were looking to keep him as well if he would take a pay cut). Didn't Brand just admit to Dunleavy being his best coach as a pro too. And the money came out to be about the same with both teams.How is his situation better?...I guess the weather is at least better over in Philly.

Brand has been a free agent before, better yet a restricted free agent. Brand knows the hard way what it is to be a NBA free agent and the need for a player to have an agent. People are retarded acting like Dunleavy took advantage of Brand, Brand is no moron. Elton let Falk get in his ear with excuses like being located closer to his family, etc. and Brand bought it hook line and sinker. Good for him because in 2010 when the Clips are making historical free agent moves, Clipper fans will look at the Elton fiasco as a blessing.

And I don't know how a true Clipper fan could not like Dunleavy. After suffering for years of Sterling's unwillingness to spend, Dunleavy is the only person in Clipper history to get Sterling to open his pockets. Without Dunleavy, the Clipper roster would probably be filled with low price low risk players like Darko and Sebastian Telfair. Players like Camby and Baron would never come to the Clippers had Dunleavy not came along and given this franchise hope.

It doesn't have to be Artest, but the Clippers need better players to compete in the West.

And I think it's was Staples Center forcing Sterling to open his pockets. And I don't see him opening his wallet this year, except for Dunleavy's salary. Sterling is going to have a real problem this year selling seats with the bad economy and bad team.

Yeah, Gordon is out there, I thought he was supposed to be injured for a couple weeks.

So essentially you are all defending Dunleavy for a habitual practice of going behind peoples backs? He bypassed Elgin to try and trade Corey Maggette, behind both Corey and Elgins backs. He built his own little tent/faction whatever and aggressively started undercutting everyone else around him.

Im all for being competitive. Im not for kicking out the kneecaps of members of your own team, your management in order to take a risk. Thats not developing a culture of winning but rather deceipt.

And I hate the Lakers. The only time I watched the Lakers was when Orlando Woolridge was the backup PF and Pat Riley was the coach.

To be real honest, I'm actually looking with excitement at Memphis because i'm so fed up with this team.

Proof? He's been the GM, the team isn't picked to make the playoffs from most experts. Doesn't matter if it's his fault or not, he didn't get it done and he's underachieved everywhere he's gone. And why didn't they make the playoffs in 2006-2007?

Games are unwatchable to me if there's no chance of the Clippers making the playoffs. Call me a non-clipper fan, I don't care. I just hate Kobe and would love for the Clippers to be the #1 team in LA. It's also a lot easier to get good seats for the Clippers.

I'll probably be a hornets fan. I'd like to see Shaq win another ring, but it doesn't look like that will happen.

You're right. GM, Head Coach, Executive Producer, Director, Editor, and Joint Chief of Staff, General Michael "Micro Manage" Dunleavy, Sr is a freaking genius. The career losing coach of our career losing team has engineered his magnum opus.

Baron Davis's Fat Camp for the Soon-To-Be-Retiring and Mentally Unstable is going to win the championship.

Who cares that we went bankupt on two of the 50 most valuable properties in the game because we couldnt renegotiate our mortgage and had to walk away for nothing in return, right? Now we have the 11th highest ticket prices, a brand new training facility and Mike got a new title. I was wrong, I'll admit. We're destined for victory.

Baylor is 74 years old and has very few accmplishments to speak of aside from trading for Ron Harper in 1989, hiring Larry Brown in 1992, trading for Brand in 2001, and in hiring MD a few years ago. MD has caused the DTS purse strings to come loose and even got DTS to pay him $20M. If Baylor couldn't convince DTS to go after free agents all these years or to persuade DTS to keep him in a management capacity, how effective would he be as a GM in making trades and going after free agents? Got to go.

10/25/08 22:49:02

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